Remember the Stars
by Still My Heart
Summary: Rose and Ten II reflect on time passed and what may come in the future.


Rose awoke rather suddenly and then wondered why. She didn't have to pee, wasn't thirsty. A little hungry, but that was a bit par for the course at 2 a.m.

She turned onto her back and placed her hand over her face.

It all seemed a bit like a dream, now. Had she really crossed the worlds again? Seen her Doctor? Touched her Doctor, held her Doctor?

It didn't seem likely now. They'd been working on it, of course, but the stars were still going out.

Rose closed her eyes and let her hand fall across the bed. The sheets were warm, as though someone had just been laying there.

Rose's eyes snapped open and she sat up, looking first at the empty space beside her, the rumpled sheets a clear indicator that someone had been laying there. She raised her gaze to the chair by the window and there he sat. The Doctor. _Her_ Doctor, staring out the window.

Rose pushed the covers aside and walked quietly over to stand behind the chair.

"Are you all right?" she asked softly, placing her hand on his shoulder.

The Doctor looked up at her, surprised.

"Did I wake you?" he asked.

"Only by your absence," Rose replied, smiling slightly. "What's wrong?"

"Just... couldn't sleep."

Rose stepped around the chair and held her hand out.

"Come on, then. _I_'_ve_ got something to show _you_, for once."

The Doctor took her hand, looking bemused, and allowed Rose to lead him from the room.

Their feet made the slightest of sound as they walked down the hall, making one quick stop before heading down the stairs and out the door in the kitchen.

The yard behind the house was sprawling but surprisingly well populated with trees and plants.

Rose led the way down a path until they reached an elevated spot of earth, clear of trees.

Rose spread out the blanket she'd taken from the hall closet and sat down, patting the space beside her.

The Doctor sat as well, gazing curiously around him.

Rose smiled and lay down, pulling the Doctor down with her.

"When I came here after... after the battle, I was okay for the first couple of nights," Rose began, and the Doctor took her hand. "It was like I had just gone home for a few days, but then I started to miss it. Being able to see the stars almost any time I wanted, visiting new places, the openness of the TARDIS. I started to wander one night when I couldn't sleep and I came out here and found this little place. And there they were, the stars, the openness, and all the green and the quiet felt like another world."

"It is rather beautiful," the Doctor murmured.

"It didn't take away the pain of losing you, though," Rose continued, very softly.

The Doctor turned his head to look at her and after a moment she tore her eyes from the sky and returned his gaze.

"I missed you, so much. I never stopped. Life went on, of course. Mum and Dad renewed their vows, convincing everyone that the Jackie Tyler of this world had only been missing. Mum had Tony a few months after that day on the beach." Rose paused, taking a steadying breath. The Doctor squeezed her hand and she continued.

"I started working at Torchwood. Mickey and I dated, sort of like we had been, but it wasn't the same. Nothing was ever the same. It's sort of easy now to understand why Sarah Jane was so upset with you when she saw you again that first time. She thought she'd be with you forever. So did I."

"I thought you'd be with me forever too," the Doctor confessed. Rose looked over at him.

"When you came back to me from this world, when you were willing to leave your family, your mother, to be with me, I allowed myself, for just a moment, to think that you would really be with me. Forever."

Rose was silent a moment, her eyes back on the sky.

"I felt you, when Dad brought me back. I put my hand on the wall and for just a minute-"

"I felt you too."

Rose fell silent again and when she spoke, her voice shook.

"I thought I'd never see you again. And after that day on the beach, I thought maybe it would get better. But it didn't." The stars blurred as tears fell from Rose's eyes. "I dreamed about you every night, when I could sleep. When I couldn't, I'd lay out here and imagine that one night, you would just appear in the TARDIS and that you and I could go back like we were. It was _so hard_ without you." Rose took a deep, shaky breath. "Did you miss me?"

"Every day," the Doctor replied, without hesitation.

"What happened after... after you disappeared?" Rose asked another brief moment of quiet.

"I met Donna."

"I meant immediately after."

"It was. She just... appeared in the TARDIS all of a sudden, all dressed up in a wedding gown."

"A wedding gown? Donna?" Rose exclaimed, laughing and sniffling at the same time.

"Oh, yes. She thought I'd kidnapped her! She slapped me 'round the face. Twice!"

"Sounds like Donna," Rose gasped through her laughter.

The Doctor paused a moment, allowing the delicious sound of Rose's giggles wash over him.

When she'd settled down, the Doctor told her about Donna's failed wedding, about the Racnoss, and Donna rescuing him.

"But she didn't want to stay with me. She wasn't ready then."

"So how did you meet Martha, then?"

"Oh, nothing terribly special. The hospital we both happened to be in got moved to the moon, is all."

"Oh, is that all?" Rose said with a mocked air of indifference.

"Yeah, just that."

The laughed together for a moment and the Doctor went on.

"Met Shakespeare after that. Martha saved the world with Harry Potter. Ran into the Face of Boe again. We were with him when he died."

Rose made a sound of sorrow, but didn't speak.

"Ran into Jack at the end of the universe, and met up with The Master again."

"The Master?" Rose murmured.

"It's a bit of a long story," the Doctor replied. "I'll tell you about it another time."

"So Martha saved the world, then?"

"I only travel with the best."

Rose smiled. "And then you met up with Donna again?"

The Doctor nodded. "Though I think you know about a lot of it."

Rose nodded. "A bit. She didn't know it at the time, but we spoke, that night with the Adipose."

"You were there?" the Doctor asked sharply, looking over at her, surprised.

"For just a few minutes. I didn't know you were there, didn't even know who Donna was yet. It was just sort of a test run, really." Rose laughed softly. "It would make sense that I'd go when there was some sort of alien event happening."

"I wish I'd known sooner. That you were trying to reach me. I could've prevented so much."

Rose sat up and stared down at the Doctor. He looked up at her, eyes old in a face so young.

"It all happened the way it was meant to happen, you know that. Donna did what she was born to do, what the Ood even saw. And now it's you and me again, like old times, yeah?"

The Doctor's gaze shifted back to the sky again.

"Not exactly."

Rose said nothing, just looked at the Doctor as he stared at the stars.

"Before," he began, "my biggest fear was losing you. I had the stars and the TARDIS and you made it all so complete. And then I did lose you. For so long. And now I have you, but the stars and the TARDIS are gone." The Doctor sighed. "Now my biggest fear is that I'll forget all of it. The stars, the TARDIS, Gallifrey and my past, the names of everyone I met and traveled with, the names of all the stars and planets. The human brain is so _limited_," the Doctor said with a touch of frustration.

Rose shifted so she could take his hand again without falling over.

"I didn't forget. I remember everything you and I did, everything we saw, everyone we met."

"900 years is such a long time, Rose."

"Then you'll write it down. Write it all down. English, Gallifreyan, don't matter. And you'll remember it all."

Rose smiled and the Doctor looked at her, finally really seeing her again and he smiled back.

Rose placed her hand on his chest, as she did on the beach, to feel the single heartbeat.

"Just one," she murmured.

"It's yours," he replied, and Rose leaned down to kiss him softly before turning to lay on her back beside him, entwining her arm in his.

"What do you think they're doing now, Donna and the other Doctor? D'you think they're back in the TARDIS together, finding new planets and different times to explore?"

The Doctor remained silent a moment because he knew that particular scenario was highly improbable. He knew that no human could have the knowledge of a Time Lord and that his alien counterpart would've already done something about it. In fact, he had felt a ghost of a twinge in his single heart earlier, a flash of grief and pain, and that the proper Doctor was all alone, as he always invariably ended up.

But instead he pulled Rose a little closer and said, "Probably."

"Now it's just you and me. We'll remember them. Donna, Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane… everybody. We'll remember them, and we'll remember the stars."

Rose rested her head on his shoulder, and the Doctor found that it suited him quite well.


End file.
